If you took a closer look at our feature list you noticed that ‘Notifications’ is one of the next things we want to implement.
Here is its description:
Since the game runs 24/7, important things can happen at any time. The notification system allows to receive email notification about new messages, halted productions or arriving ships and displays respective alerts within the game. Players will be able to customize their notification settings.
Basically we have to answer two questions: what event should translate into a notification and what kind of notifications do we want to have.
I am interested in your opinion on those questions!
Here is a list of possible notification types:
in-game The notifications in-game could reach from the little-green indicators for chat messages to a full tile showing the latest events.
tab-title Sometime websites display the amount of new messages etc as a number in the tab title, like (12) Prosperous Universe
web notification Browsers nowadays have a consolidated way to display notifications, maybe you noticed them while using the forum. First they ask for permission:
and then notifications like these can be used:
Of course these would be PU-branded.
email Classic: Something happens, you get an email.
push notifications This is a bit of a long shot, but in the future we could provide push notifications for mobile devices
I am interested what types of notifications you like / dislike and which you would like to use in PU.
Equally important is the content of the notifications. Here is a short list:
Ship events (arrival at destination, waypoint reached, …)
I just have a basic one.
I don’t like eMail notifications, because i check my mails only once in a while.
My tab bar is always overcrowded, so single tabs are tiny and a number wouldn’t be much of a use for me, because i can’t see it, but not that i would dislike the idea.
Haven’t played the Alpha yet, so i can’t judge on that little green indicator thing.
If i had to choose one option i would go for the web notifications, i think it’ll draw the most attention.
About notifications, i think the most important one will be about halted productions, it’s mentioned in the description, but not anymore at the short list below, please don’t forget about them.
There could be a notification for colonizing a new planet, too.
And don’t forget about notifications, when shipconstruction is completed.
Also notifications on sold out trade offers would be helpful.
If there will be asteroid mining, notification of depleted ressources could be useful too.
Notifications of low stock, number customizable by user, is an additional idea.
Ingame: In my opinion the small green bar on the com channel isn’t enough why not lightning up the whole tab for example? i would love to have a customizable notification center as a signle new buffer where you can set your preferences on what you want to have shown in that one, like when a ship construction is done or when your contract has been accepted, so everybody can adjust it on his own needs.
Browser notifications: are something I would see as an bonus for the before mentioned notification buffer, and I would not put too much information in them, as you are already on your PC so you could then just go ingame and check the notification buffer.
Email notifications: are something I do not like at all, but that is only my opinion
Seems as if no one likes eMail notifications Of course we won’t send eMails for every action in the game but I think it is useful from time to time to remind player to get back into the game.
That is a great idea. So we could have matrix or table like control interface with game events on one axis and notification type on the other. So, for example, some one who doesn’t need ship flight notifications could just un-tick them for all notification types.
Concerning web notifications. There is the technical possibility of providing these notifications even if the game is not open in any tab. Would you accept that behavior or is it too invasive?
Yes that would in my opinion be the only useful thing, that after a certain amount of inactivity you get such an email.
That’s exactly what I thought, and if possible I would love to have that combined with the notification feature of the browser so that only the notifications you selected in-game toggle a browser notification.
There are other cases, where eMail notifications could be useful, especially to get in touch with players, who stopped playing and let them know about game updates or send them personalized promo offers like, get back to the game and receive 10% off your first credit purchase.
But that will be a thing for the new CM to figure out
I think it’s a good thing, that you can close the tab and still get important notifications.
Maybe you can set this in the intended notifications grid.
Of course we won’t send eMails for every action in the game but I think it is useful from time to time to remind player to get back into the game.